What Makes a Happy Ending?
by imsavannah
Summary: A 6x03 continuation of when Toby took Spencer home in his police car after they saw Andrew and before Spencer and her mom talked.


"Thanks for the ride, Toby." Emily said as she settled into the back seat of his police car, with Spencer on the right of her. It was only the two of them because Lorenzo volunteered to take Hanna and Aria home.

Toby nodded. "It's no problem."

The three of them drove in silence for a few minutes until Toby spoke up, clearing his throat and glancing in the rearview mirror at the two girls behind him. "Are you guys okay? You know, with Andrew being released and everything?"

Emily hesitantly looked over at Spencer, who was leaning her elbow on the door and staring out the window, clearly not interested in answering Toby.

"Um…" Emily stuttered, trying to put her feelings into words. "It's not so much that we're worried about Andrew, as we are that the person who still did this is obviously still out there. And the fact that there aren't really any suspects." Well, except for Charles, Emily thought, although he was faceless to her and the girls.

Toby sighed. "Everyone at the police station is on this case." He turned in his seat after being stopped at a red light. "We'll find the person who did this to you. I promise you, we will."

"Don't make promises you can't keep." Spencer rasped out, speaking for the first time since they got in the car.

He turned to look at Spencer, his facial expression sad at her confession, but didn't get a chance to respond to her since the car behind them beeped, signaling that the light had changed to green.

"There's going to be patrol cars stationed at all your houses and circling around town," Toby stated, putting the car in park as they arrived at Emily's house.

Emily nodded, opening the door and climbing out. "Thanks again for the ride."

"Sure. Don't hesitate to call if you need anything. As a cop or…as a friend." Toby smiled slightly. He and Emily used to be really good friends, but lately the only thing he knew about Emily was what Spencer told him. He missed her.

"I will." Emily returned his smile, and then looked back at her friend in the backseat. "See you tomorrow, Spence."

"See you later," Spencer replied, turning at her friend before she shut the door and made her way up her porch to the front door.

Toby watched as Emily pulled out her key from her bag and made it into the house safely. He turned back to look at his girlfriend. "I'm sorry you can't sit in the front seat…the force is really crazy about that for some reason, of all things."

"It's okay," Spencer replied, finally looking at him.

Toby turned back around and drove away from Emily's, unsure of exactly what to say to Spencer. He knew that she introduced herself to Lorenzo to prove a point to him. If she was trying to piss him off, it kind of worked.

To Toby's surprise, she spoke up only after about a minute later. "Lorenzo seems nice."

"Yeah, he's really cool. A whole lot better than having Tanner as a partner."

Spencer looked down and took a deep breath, deciding to let out what was on her mind all night. "Look, I know that you don't like Alison and you have so many reasons to feel that way, and so do I, but I also feel that she's still like a sister to me."

"Spencer, she's used you. She's used me. She's used every single person in her life to her advantage. Lorenzo doesn't know about all of that. I don't know about you, but I would like someone looking out for me if I was in his situation."

"We went over this earlier," Spencer sighed. "People change."

Toby pulled up to Spencer's house, parking and turning off the car. He turned in his seat to look at her. "It's just hard to believe that she's completely reinventing herself and changing her values and everything. It's especially hard to believe coming from a person who is known to be manipulative." He quickly got out of the car and slid into the backseat so that the two of them could continue this conversation face to face.

" _Was_ manipulative. She hasn't been anything but helpful lately and she's even asking her dad ab-" Spencer stopped herself when she realized what she was saying. She couldn't tell Toby anything about Charles because they agreed that they wouldn't tell anyone since they really didn't know who he was. Especially the police. And unfortunately, Toby was the police.

Toby looked at her in confusion at her abrupt stop in conversation, raising his eyebrow. "She's asking her dad what?" He asked slowly.

"Nothing. She's just…She's asking him to help us. She's trying. That's all I meant by that." Spencer said rather quickly, really hoping that he would just drop it.

"She _should_ be helping you guys. Maybe if she had that attitude from the beginning, then…"

Spencer shook her head. "Don't. Just don't even go there, okay? It happened…everything that happened to me and the girls, happened, and we just have to learn how to deal with it now."

"You're right. I'm sorry." Toby sighed, running his hand down her arm, giving her hand a small tug when he reached it.

"I'm not saying that I would, like, jump out of a plane with her or anything. I just think that she's still here and she deserves the chance to be a better person if that's what she wants to do. You and I both know all about second chances." Spencer replied, holding his hand in hers. "I can't make you trust her or like her, but you can't make me _not_ trust her or like her."

Toby swallowed, looking down at their loosely intertwined hands and back at her. "What if I still don't trust her?"

"Fine," Spencer replied, a little flustered. "But don't ruin anything with Lorenzo."

"But what if she's still the same, awful person?"

"Then he'll figure it out." She raised her voice, and then lowered it. "People's true colors always shine through."

"So, are you guys, like, going to be hanging out a lot now?"

Spencer sighed, feeling exhausted from the little sleep that she'd gotten in the past weeks and feeling irritated from this conversation.

"I don't know! Maybe? Does it matter?

Toby shrugged. "I don't know."

Spencer ran her free hand through her hair and down her face, closing her eyes. "I'm really tired, so I think I'm going to try to get some sleep. Emphasis on the word 'try'." She lunged to open the door next to her, but was stopped by Toby pulling her back by their still barely intertwined hands.

"Do you want me to come inside?" He asked.

She almost said yes from the mere look in his eyes. She could tell that he felt bad for upsetting her and putting more stress on her on top of all the stress and anxiety she was already suffering from. However, this conversation and the events of the entire day just made her want to be alone.

"I think that it's best if I try to sleep on my own tonight. My mom's been sleeping with me, but I think I'm ready."

He nodded. "I'm going off duty now, but someone will be here on patrol. And you know that I'm always just a phone call or text away."

"I know," she replied, opening the car door and walking around the car towards her back door.

Before she could make it very far, she heard Toby's voice as he climbed out of the backseat. "Wait," He called as he made his way back to her, only a few feet away from the car. "Are you sure that you're okay?"

"I'm fine." Spencer nodded, reaching up to plant a light kiss on his cheek. "I'll call you tomorrow." With that, she turned and made her way up to her back door and walked inside the house.

Toby turned and got back into the drivers' seat, just sitting there for a few minutes before starting up the car again. He should be in there with her. He knew she wasn't fine. She can't be fine with everything that's happened to her, because he knew he wasn't even fine. If he couldn't stay inside with her, he wanted to stay outside on patrol. He sighed, he couldn't do that. He knew that Spencer wouldn't appreciate him doing that. Instead, he turned the keys in the ignition, pulled his seatbelt on and drove away.

* * *

 **This kind of goes with Spencer's breakdown with her mom right after this and with her saying she doesn't see a happy ending coming anytime soon. I really hope that Spencer and Toby get on the same page soon!**


End file.
